Three California-based providers — By the Bay Health, Mission Hospice & Home Care and Hope Hospice — announced they will merge, creating the largest nonprofit hospice network in northern California.
Leaders of all three agencies said the merger will make them stronger competitors in the marketplace, and also improve access to care in the communities they serve.
“To be able to combine our organizations, hospice and home care, it really does expand that mission even further. So number one is being able to just reach more patients,” By the Bay Health CEO Skelly Wingar told Hospice News. “In business, scalability is so critical. If we’re going to have operating costs that allow us to provide this level of incredible care, it is the side of business that we have to pay attention to. We’re not-for-profit, so we’re not fighting for the deepest margin that we can get. However, we’re still a business, and so the ability to scale is really important as well.”
Established more than 45 years ago, By the Bay Health is among the oldest nonprofit hospices in California and is an affiliate of UCSF Health. It offers home health, hospice, palliative care, grief support and pediatric care in eight counties around the San Francisco area.
Mission Hospice & Home Care offers home care, end-of-life care, grief support and community education services to patients and their families in South Bay, California, and in the San Francisco Peninsula area.
Hope Hospice serves about 2,000 individuals annually through its various service lines, which include hospice, palliative care and dementia-care education.
The three providers were pioneers in the space: By the Bay Health was the first hospice to operate in its home state, Mission was the first to launch in California’s San Mateo County and Hope was among the earliest nonprofits to serve the East Bay Tri-Valley region near San Francisco.
“Way back in 1975, we were the first hospice agency in California,” Wingard said earlier this month. “Even back then, the real drive was to grow the mission, to drive it as far reaching as possible. To be able to combine our organizations, hospice and home care, it really does expand that mission even further. So number one is being able to just reach more patients.”
By the Bay and Mission had announced their plans to merge in September. In the following months, Hope Hospice joined the transaction.
“Merging with these two excellent partners protects our legacy in the East Bay, and it secures access to additional quality resources and services,” Hope Hospice CEO Jennifer Hansen said in a statement. “As a stronger combined organization, we can continue to provide compassionate end-of-life care that prioritizes the needs of patients and their families.”
Following the merger, the combined organization will have the capacity to serve more than 1,100 patients per day with more than 500 community volunteers and 600 multidisciplinary staff members.
The organization will also include Mission House – the only residential hospice house in the region.
“Mission Hospice, By the Bay Health, and Hope Hospice share a rich history and commitment to serving the Bay Area community with comprehensive end-of-life care, education, and grief support,” Mission Hospice CEO Dolores Miller said in a statement. “Together, we can provide even more families the compassionate care and comfort they deserve at one of the most vulnerable times of life.”
